From our Old Bike Archives – Issue 102 – first published in 2022.
Story and photos: Jim Scaysbrook
Tainton is a name that has been around Victorian motorcycling circles for decades – Murray and his cousin Phil both deeply involved with the sport in various disciplines. While Phil maintains an active role in race preparation, Murray leads a quieter life, restoring bikes from his home workshop in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Murray grew up in Vermont South on Burwood Highway, where his parents were orchardists. The family property had plenty of paddocks for the cows and horses, which were also ideal for other uses – like tearing around on motorbikes. From the age of 12, Murray would spend every available moment doing just that, honing his skill, and it was inevitable that the pastime would lead to racing. This began at age 16 with Hartwell Club scrambles events.
His first-ever meeting was at Pakenham and Murray was actually leading the race when he caught up to a lapped rider over a jump and thought he was going to land on top of him – he bailed out and broke his wrist. It wasn’t a dream start to a racing career and he didn’t ride again until he was nearly 18. This time, things went smoother and he went from C Grade to A Grade within 12 months. It certainly helped having access to his parents’ property, giving him lots of time to practice.
“My first bike was a 500 Matchless,” Murray recalls, “but I soon got rid of that – if it fell over I couldn’t pick it up. Then I went to an early model Bultaco Pursang and then a new Pursang. Gary Flood at the time was riding a 360 CZ and (his father and Bultaco importer) Bert Flood didn’t like that, so we did a deal where I took the 360 CZ and Bert took the Bultaco back. It was the CZ that I got most of my scrambles and motocross results on. Back in those days you could ride the one bike for several seasons; now they ride several bikes for one season. My favourite tracks were Christmas Hills and Newry, where I always had good success. I really enjoyed the natural terrain tracks.
As well as the Victoria events I went to a few of the Australian Motocross Championships when they were held interstate, but I seemed to have really bad luck at most of these. At one stage I was sponsored on a Yamaha 125 and I was leading the 125 race at Cessnock, but on the second last lap the bike jammed in second or third gear and they all passed me. At Ipswich in Queensland I did really well and won my heat but as I came out for the final on my CZ 360, the points cam broke on the starting line.”
Originally a Graphic Arts designer, by now Murray was considering a move into a motorcycle business, and founded Boronia Motorcycles in 1975, with cousin Phil, a fitter and turner by trade, also working there. “I was getting quite a few injuries and when I started the shop the pressures of business really took its toll. I couldn’t do the training and I didn’t have the sponsorship. I had no choice but to wind down my racing and my final motocross was the Victorian Grand National in 1976 at Christmas Hills. I’d been out with a broken elbow for nine months and they put me back to B Grade. I was off the second row of the grid and I went over the first jump and Bernie Ryan fell off in front of me and I collided with his bike and broke my wrist. That was enough for me, but I wasn’t quite finished with the competition side.”
Enduros had been steadily growing in popularity in Australia – mirroring the similar situation in Europe and USA, and this appealed to Murray, offering an outlet for sport with less risk than motocross. “I took up Enduros and in 1978 I went in the very first Australian Four Day Enduro and ended up winning the 175 class on an SWM. I then went to the International Six Day Trial in Sweden the same year also on SWM, and I was on Gold until the pit crew forgot to put oil into one of the fuel drums, and I copped that drum. The bike seized but luckily I got it going again. I just happened to pass a guy who happened to have a bottle of two-stroke oil in the boot of his car. He couldn’t speak English, I couldn’t speak Swedish but I got the oil off him, poured some down the plug hole and got it going and ended up finishing on bronze. Some of the others didn’t get going because they also seized.” Murray also rode in the 1982 renamed ISDE – (International Six Day Enduro) in Czechoslovakia on a 125 KTM but a fractured water pump spigot cooked the motor.
Competition finished for Murray when he turned 38. He had been running the Suzuki Australia Enduro Team very successfully, but in 1982 Neville Doyle poached him from Suzuki, and set up the Kawasaki Australia Enduro Team. From 1982 to 1989 he ran the Kawasaki team and briefly a Junior MX Team. Once again, he succumbed to the lure of competition and started riding in a few Thumper Nats, just for fun. He also ran the KTM Australia Enduro Team for many years.
Murray had expanded into a two-storey shop (renamed BTX Motorcycles) on Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully. He promoted himself, his shop and teams, getting plenty of write ups in magazines, often through his friendship with Geoff Eldridge, editor of Australasian Dirt Bike. He also contributed articles and a column in Trail & Track magazine. In 1982 Murray started the Victorian Cross Country Series and ran that for ten years. It was a Hare & Hound type event for which he obtained many sponsors. He was also instrumental in setting up the Recreational Registration scheme in Victoria in the early 1990s, something Victorian off road riders are continually thankful for.
“I gave away Kawasaki in 1999 and BMW in 1989 because I was just doing warranty work and wasn’t making any money out of it. I had the business from 75 to 2008. The buyer was a young guy who used to buy mini bikes off me with his father. When his father died, he took over the family business for a few years then sold it to Trans Pacific for over $200 million. I said to him one day just jokingly, “You should buy my business off me” and he said, “Yes, I had a vision of owning a motorbike shop.” So he bought it but he basically used it as a toy shop for him and his kids, put a car salesman in who had no idea how to run it, so it lasted two and a half years. After about five months he changed the name, which I thought was odd because BTX had a good reputation. I loved the industry but not the stresses of having up to 20 people working for me. Being in an industry of big boy’s toys we were often getting broken into, stealing mini bikes and knocking over road bikes to get to them. It got to me in the end with alarms going off at night all the time.”
Murray still has the 360 CZ he raced in the ‘sixties, along with a collection of Enduro bikes, but in retirement, spends most of his time restoring bikes for friends and clients. He estimates that more than 100 restorations have passed through his workshop. “I love the Kawasaki H1s and the Z1A and I enjoy playing around with the early enduro bikes and the motocross bikes too because that’s what I used to race. I also did an MV Agusta America for Rosco Holden. It was a different bike, I’d never worked on one before in my life, but it turned out very well and a professional video was made of it. (see: https://youtu.be/F3x03ssPmEU). It was later sent to the UK for sale and made over $100,000.” On the day of our visit, he rolled out a few of the more recent restorations, which are shown here.
